Louisville's medical pot ban likely to be extended

City has only two medical marijuana dispensaries

LOUISVILLE -- The City Council hinted Tuesday night that it will extend the city's moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries past the Aug. 15 deadline that is now in place.

Several council members said they wanted to wait for Gov. Bill Ritter to sign a newly passed state law on medical marijuana before voting on an extension, but they agreed that more time is needed to figure out how to proceed on regulating the businesses within city limits.

Louisville has the option under the state legislation of banning dispensaries altogether or allowing them with certain restrictions, like keeping them a minimum distance from schools, churches and other dispensaries.

Medical marijuana dispensaries will also be required to show that they can cultivate 70 percent of the marijuana they sell.

Ritter is expected to sign the legislation.

Mayor Chuck Sisk said he voted for Colorado's medical marijuana law -- Amendment 20 -- 10 years ago, but he said he doesn't want to turn the city into a hotbed for marijuana dispensaries.

"What happens when Superior bans it, and Broomfield bans it and Thornton bans it and Louisville becomes the place for distribution?" he asked.

Louisville is among many cities in the state -- including Longmont, Lafayette, Superior and Erie -- that have a moratorium on new dispensaries.

The city initially passed a temporary ban in October and then extended it by emergency ordinance last month.

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Laurel Alterman, who owns one of only two medical marijuana dispensaries in Louisville, pleaded to the council that she be allowed to grow marijuana in the city to meet the state's cultivation threshold. She said she would be happy to use a dilapidated building as a grow operation and attach no signs to indicate what was going on inside.

"It was never my intention to be a grower, but that is what the state is demanding of us," she said.

Alterman told the council that her business, AlterMeds, passed along to the city $2,771 in sales tax revenues in April and that business continues to boom at her Colony Square Shopping Center storefront.

She acknowledged that if Louisville enacted a ban, her business would actually benefit because all future competition would be eliminated. But she's not sure she likes that idea on principle.

"A ban isn't patient-oriented, and it isn't business-oriented," she said.

The council is expected to have language for a moratorium extension in place by its next meeting June 15.

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